Polystachya anceps Ridl.1885
Photos by Lourens Grobler ©
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Common Name The Double Edged Polystachya
Flower Size
Found only in the Comoros and Madagascar in humid highland forests at elevations of 660 to 1700 meters as a medium sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte or lithophyte with a basally swollwn stem enveloped by 3 to 5 lanceolate leaves that blooms in the spring and summer on an erect, glabrous, peduncle enveloped by 1 to 2, basal, compressed, ancipitate sheaths, 4 to 8" [10 to 20 cm] long, branching, to 6" [15 cm] long, 20 to 40 flowered inflorescence
Similar to P concreta but differs in the sheaths of the inflorescence that are compressed-ancipitous, often reduced to a single one, has larger flowers, and has a trilobed lip below the center.
Synonyms Dendrorchis anceps (Ridl.) Kuntze 1891; Polystachya hildebrandtii Kraenzl. 1923; Polystachya mauritania var anceps [Ridley] Perrier 1936
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora of Madagascar Perrier 1939/81 as P mauritania var anceps; AOS Bulletin Vol 52 No 11 1983 photo fide; Orchids of Madagascar Hermans, Du Puy, Cribb & Bosser 2007; Field Guide to the Orchids of Madagascar Cribb & Herman 2009 photo so/so; A la Recherche des Orchidees de Madagascar Hervouet 2018 photo fide;
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